From A Bus Named TOURIST

(Alice) Thoughts roll along with the landscape as we motor into Rajasthan, caught in bumpy road-notes:

Potential road kill now includes monkeys, peacocks, camels and water buffalo. So far our extraordinary driver has negotiated all traffic, human and otherwise without sending anything into its next incarnation. Along with a small "American Planning Association" sign, the front of the bus is decorated with a Ganesh decal, two small strands of chili peppers and lime whose significance has yet to be revealed, and a monkey-demon image.

Vernacular architecture is good for the planner soul, especially when you can’t even guess the function of a particular structure.

The long-haul truckers drive rolling works of art, message fused to image, to be further discussed in another blog entry. Meanwhile, HORN PLEASE, and USE DIPPER AT NIGHT.

Planners everywhere are constructing thoughtful and current master plans, but none of us on either side of the globe has any novel or better ideas about implementation.

Regarding Chandigarh: a planned area always draws a line and the periphery will always become a question and a problem: infill? Go higher? Change the boundaries?

Not all superblocks are created equal. While we all want to walk to everything we need, we will drive across town if the shops or schools are perceived to be better elsewhere.

And yes, 8 or more people can get into an autorickshaw, even if they’re not going to a better superblock.

A busload of planners, architects and attorneys on the same journey begin to feel like family even after just a few days. Especially when we’re all nerdy about the same or similar interests. It was cool to see the Indian highways through Cheryl’s transportation planner eyes. She snapped photos from the front aisle and kept a running commentary on tollbooths, bus stops and signage.
Ganesh, one of the more beloved Hindu deities, is the remover of obstacles and the deva of intellect and wisdom, and is thus (I declare) the God of Planning.

Way back in Delhi, a sign displayed the motto of the Indian Coast Guard: "We are swift, professional and humane." Wouldn’t that be a great slogan for a planning department?
Being at the Taj Mahal is a walking, waking dream state. Ecstasy by design, bliss shared with strangers, smiles exchanged.

The Rock Garden

The Rock Garden is like Caddilac Ranch or one of those other eccentric labors of love. The Rock Garden's creator spent 40 years collecting reusable building materials and constructing a winding path lined with mosaics, statues, walls, arches, waterfalls, pavilions, and bridges. It took an hour to walk through his forty years of work. I burned out my camera's batteries trying to capture the wonders of this place. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a Rock Garden is worth a thousand pictures:

Transported in Delhi

(Alice) The tomb of Iman Zamin at the Qutb Minar site in Delhi resolves its square base into a circular dome by virtue of the architectural device known as the squinch.

And a moveable feat of spatial resolution occurs in the relentless honking momentum of the Delhi traffic. A fragile autorickshaw will wedge into the rapidly disappearing space between two merging trucks, somehow assuming that it can move forward before it is annihilated. A car veers into oncoming traffic, confident that the impending head-on collision with a rapidly approaching bus will be avoided as both vehicles play chicken before swerving to within a few millimeters of other moving metal at the last possible moment. Every day in Delhi, carnage and dismemberment are routinely and skillfully avoided by timely fractions of an inch.

And what cannot be found along the streets of Delhi? Goats, chickens, cows, sheep and monkeys are there, along with beautifully-dressed women and all the rest of humanity. Near Indira Gandhi’s tomb, an elephant piled high with landscape trimmings lumbers down the road. Above, crazy tangled mazes of utility lines display a stratigraphy of what had worked then and now, with officially strung wires woven among the efforts of power pirates and dish wallas. Every situation is accommodated as needed, when needed, with the evidence of past accommodations not hidden or corrected. The traffic is a dynamic depiction of this Delhi skill for accommodation, as the stutter and flow of each vehicle organically weaves forward as a compliant whole.

Twelve years ago, the Delhi roads were populated with fleets of humpy old Ambassadors and diesel-spew from autorickshaws and long-haul trucks. The same roads are now plied by “clean fuel” buses and autorickshaws powered by CNG. The evidence of India’s exploding middle class is in the form of many more shiny late-model private cars. All the planning entities we met with in Delhi mentioned the need to build underground and multi-level parking facilities, currently in short supply. On the regional level, five integrated freight complexes and wholesale hubs are being developed beyond Delhi’s periphery so that long-haul truckers won’t come into Delhi in the first place: currently, many goods are trucked in from hundreds of miles out, not for consumption here, but to be re-packed and sent again on their way. “There is no need to bring the apples to Delhi to sort them out”, said one of our contacts at the School of Architecture and Planning.

­­­­­Mr.Shreedarharan, Director of Delhi Metro, is a rock star among transportation administrators. We meet with him in the world’s most palatial public agency building, a glass and stainless high-rise palace designed by Stein, Doshi and Bhalla. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is a joint venture of the Government of India and the Delhi Government, with heavy financial backing from Japan. The Metro Master Plan involves 12 lines and 420 km of passenger rail to be completed in 4 phases. The astonishing miracle this agency has pulled off is that Phase I was completed within budget ($2.1 billion) and 2 years ahead of schedule, with no operational subsidies. Ridership today is 900,000 passengers a day, which translates to 60,000 fewer vehicles playing chicken on the Delhi streets. Why has Metro been so successful? They are a young and lean independent agency with flexibility, good organizational values and a charismatic leader who knows his stuff and views contractors as partners. To cope with the pressures of timely performance, employees meditate and do yoga as part of the work day.

The next day, we ride the clean efficient product of their labors. It is a world-class subway line, with the only oddity being the hyper-security regime. Riders are electronically scanned and bags searched, and signs everywhere educate the Delhi citizenry in mass-transit protocol, which is hardly of the squinchy nature.

Meanwhile, above ground on the roads, the good people of the capital carry on with their talent for squinching square vehicles into tiny gaps and managing chaos with a flair. Redevelopment plans for the Old City include a proposed street redesign that would put traffic dividers between vehicular lanes and pedestrian lanes and create a separate bus lane. Having seen traffic routinely go the wrong way down the divided highway to Agra, I suspect that folks will continue to use the roads in whatever manner is expeditious at the time. There is exuberance and creativity to spare in this culture, but order does not appear to be the strongest of motivating factors. But you have to admire an urban street system that accommodates the occasional water buffalo or donkey-powered vehicle as well as behemoth luxury tourist buses; the organic forward motion of the traffic beast rumbles on. As befits a former British colony, the streets are also sometimes populated by those drinkers with a running problem, the Hash House Harriers. I may chase their rabbit in Mumbai…

Old Delhi

We took the Metro to the Delhi Old Town. It was just as dense as we expected, and just as crowded and messy as we expected. There were miles of electricity cables hanging from the buildings, garbage swept into reasonably neat piles on the side of the street, and zero cars. We walked through a mile of winding urban canyons ten feet wide and thirty feet tall, passing homes stores, and temples all along the way. The first floors were consistently retail - I have not seen such a dense concentration of retail except in San Francisco's Chinatown, and this urbanity comprised an entire town, not just a district. Only once we made it to Chandni Chowk, the main street of Old Town, did the area begin to look the least bit familiar. At least here the storefronts were at least as wide as they were tall, the street had two lanes and cars and buses to fill them, there were usable (and well used) sidewalks.

While on the main street of Old Town, we got two surprise invititations. One was from the owner of a Hawali. It was beautiful. It was full of antiques, had 12 foot ceilings, was three stories tall, had several courtyards, and had a usable roof that connected to the neighboring rooftops. Once in the Hawali, everthing seemed peaceful, even though we were still only 50 feet from the hustle and bustle of Chandni Chowk. The owner has been fighting the town, his family, and pressure to convert to commercial space for decades.

Our second invitation was from the Redevelopment Agency of Old Town. They want redevelopment without damaging the character of the area. They want to expand the pedestrian walks, and have an open tram that people can just hop on and off of. They want it to still feel like Chandni Chowk. They wants to avoid gentrification, and avoid moving wholesale trade outside of town (as the Master Plan would like) because that would reduce the type of activity that is a central feature of and purpose for Old Town. The acknowledge that goods movement in Old Town is difficult, even thought they are only using hand carts, and would like to try solving the difficulties through introducing one-way streets, public transportation, the tramway, and creating parking within walking distance of but just outside the core area. Tradition should play a role in which uses "belong" in old town and which can be comfortably moved out of town. The traditional balance of residential and commercial has been lost (since the indroduction of the two nearby railway stations in the mid 1800's), and that has caused some of today's problems. The Redevelopment Agency might support moving warehousing uses.

To support their redevelopment plans, they did a survey on the uses of every plot of land in old town. They are trying to identify the activities that should stay in Old Town, and which could be moved. They know it will be difficult to convince people and communities to relocate, so they are trying a two-pronged approach. First, they will try to move entire business clusters at once, so that related businesses and existing relationships can be maintained. Second, they are trying to demonstrate the benefits of relocation to those that might benefit from relocation, highlighting how better and newer infrastructure, and less traffic, might help them earn more money.

Old Town itself will get an upgrade, with possible undergrounding of utilities, and repair and upgrading of existing dilapidated buildings. The mentioned rent control as a reason for their being so many dilapidated buildings: Owners can't charge enough rent to cover repair costs, and tenants can't recover the benefit in the form of rent for any repairs they make. The result is that the owner's best strategy is to let the building deteriorate until the tenant moves out, at which time the owner can then build a new structure.

The School of Architecture and Planning

Immediately after our meeting with the Delhi Development Authority, we walked just a few minutes down the street to the School of Architecture and Planning. They worked with the DDA on the recent Master Plan. Some issues they were interested in addressing through the Master Plan were related to in-migration and homelessness, the focus of transportation infrastructure on Delhi, and on transitioning the lead on development from the public sector to the private sector.

The School professors were the only group we have spoken to that included what I would call political economy into their analyses. They were the ones who saw the value of "informal monetary transaction systems", where even large assets (like houses) are bought and sold with cash and trust instead of contracts. I spoke to one of the professors afterward and we both agreed that such high-trust systems are more efficient than systems that ultimately require lawyers. We were both concerned that if the fabric of the old city were ripped apart, it would destroy the face-to-face and regular personal contacts that allow informal and high-trust economies to exist.

The School professors were also the ones who suggested a connection between low carbon citites and low stress cities, pointing out that high carbon uses, like driving instead of walking, contribute to rather than relieve stress, and the higher densities that would reduce a town's carbon footrprint would also lead to more interpersonal interactions in towns, which would reduce stress.

They noted that the Master Plan is becoming more and more a policy document, but that Climate Change policies have not yet been fully integrated into it, or into Indian Planning more generally.

The Delhi Master Plan

The Plan has been mentioned by every other entity we visited. It is a fully integrated Master Plan that includes social and economic goals as well as classic land use designations. Parking gets its own section, and also included is social infrastructure, disaster management (for every zone), sports, water supply, and power and energy. The current 2021 Plan is based on two previous plans from 1990 and 1962. The 1962 Plan in turn was influenced by the London Plan and London planners. The current Delhi Master Plan won an international award for the ISOCA.
Much of the Plan revolves around redevelopment (up to 40%). They need and will try to get the private sector to help finance the infrastructure improvements, similar to what happened with the new Dublin BART station.

Other aspects of their Plan have to do with concern about the ability of the city infrastructure to handle new growth. If they can influence growth in some sectors of the society and economy, the Plan tries to do it. One example is that they intend to have no new government offices in Delhi. Government offices should be created outside the city core that is already overburdened with activity. Another idea is that new industry should be high-tech. They didn't mention whether this was a goal because they thought high tech industries were less demanding on city infrastructure than other industries, or because they thought a stronger high-tech sector would help them economically (which it would any city), but I guess it is the former, with the latter being a pleasant side benefit. They also recently tried to restrict commercial activites in residential areas, but that was strongly resisted by the public. A similar mechanism is proposed for logistics and wholesale trade. The Plan plans for five new centers on the outskirts of Delhi for transfers and distribution of goods, so that this activity does not need to occur in the city's old town anymore.

A lot of the talk about the Plan during our meeting was about housing for the Economically Weak Sector (EWS), as well as other considerations for the EWS population. 35% of all housing created is supposed to be for the EWS, who are those who can afford nothing. Another 20% is for those who can only afford a little. Related to EWS issues is in-migration, where people from rural areas come to the city to try to make a better living. The Plan addresses in-migration in part through regional planning that would promote economic development in the hinterland, giving in-migrants a place to seek opportunity that is outside of Delhi center.

There was less talk about planned land uses than I had expected. The Plan expects to grow all the way out to the State boundaries (Delhi is a State as well as a City), accommodating an expected growth in population from 14 Million to 23 Million by 2020. The physical boundaries are a river to the west and a ridge to the south. They plan for a greenbelt to act as boundaries in the North and West, at the State border.

Learn more about the Delhi Master Plan online at www.dda.org.in and www.urbanindia.nic.in.

Coffee Day

Our hotel in Chandigarh is right next to a Coffee Day. Since Coffee Day is on my todo list, I made sure to stop in last night for some Masala Tea. There I saw five young teenagers playing Pictionary. I was curious right away to see how the game translated into Indian, so I went over to look and listen. They did not blink for a moment as I showed an interest in their game, they simply and quickly invited me to play. I sat down with them and watched them finish their game (I became their impartial judge for tough calls). They were playing in English with an English language set, so it was easy enough to follow.

About the only aspect that was exactly the same as when I have played Pictionary in the U.S. was that the team that was a couple was quicker, 'because of their connection'. All of the kids were extremely quick witted, teasing each other constantly, and of course as soon as I sat down I too was fair game for jokes. They had developed some code symbols that meant 'one word', 'two words', or other often used symbols, and they had also developed a pattern of guessing a theme and throwing out all kinds of words related to the theme, in order to maximize feedback opportunities from the sketcher. They were very fast, both in sketching and in proposing words. There was no moment wasted on thought or reflection on what would be the best sketch. They would also strategize which way to approach describing a word, based on what they knew of the guesser's habits and strengths. Of 10 or so rounds I observed, I was only able to guess one of them before they did.

We then played one round of Boggle. I joined in, and really thought I would do well, because I read and write a lot. When I suggested that I might also have a native language advantage, they quickly shot that down and started the game. After the two minutes of trying to find words in the eight assigned letters, we compared answers and scores. I had perhaps found the fewest words of all of them. The one guy with the quickest wit also had the longest list of words, though I think he got the list just by mixing letters and writing them down without even thinking about it.

Watching and listening to these quickwitted, friendly, and unflappable teenagers, immediately after having experienced the hospitality and sophistication of the professionals at the press club, makes me understand why so many think that India is going to dominate 21st century culture and economy, China notwithstandin.

The Chandigarh Press Club

We were invited to have dinner at the Chandigarh Press Club last night. From 7:30 - 10:30, perhaps 20 Indian planners and architects of all levels of experience showed up to share dinner with us, answer questions we had about the city and Le Corbusier's plan, and find out a bit about phow planning works in California.

I was most impressed by our hosts' sophistication and civility. Each one of the made a point to circle from table to table during the course of the evening, making sure to talk to every one of us. Instead of sitting at a table with each other and not interacting with us, they scattered and integrated themselves into our tables, and engaged us in conversation. Each person was extremely knowledgeable in their field, but were also able to carry on a conversation on a multitude of other topics. They showed an interest in us, in helping us, and in learning from us. The experience reminded me that we are dealing with a culture that is 5,000 years old.

Rachna Prepares for Chandigarh

(Rachna) So here I am sitting on the train reconnecting with an old friend and enjoying the company of my APA friends and looking forward to visiting the city of Chandigarh. It's the city where I studied to be an architect about twenty years ago. Now that I am also trained as a city planner, I wil get to see the city from a new perspective. I hope I run into old school friends as I get there. While I am writing this, I got a call from my Chandigarh contacts that they are waiting for us and have something planned for us. Now that is great news as I have been trying to organize something like this in Chandigarh for so long!

While I am preparing myself for the exciting time in Chandigarh, I am also reflecting on the time spent in Delhi. It seemed that the group enjoyed their time as I did in Delhi except that Steve did not get to buy the Indian traditional outfit for his wife that he was so looking forward to. I wish I could be of more help to him in finding just the right one. He waited so patiently for me to have my lunch before I could go to the store and help him pick one out. I hope to be of better help to him in Jaipur. Will stop now as Chandigarh is getting closer and I want to be ready be welcomed as I arrive there!

Chandigarh

Chandigarh was the brainchild of Nehru, who wanted a new capital for the Punjab, which had lost its original capital, Lahore, to Pakistan during partition. His direction was to build a city "unfettered by the traditions of the past".

The vision for the city started with site selection. The original architect liked this site for its proximity to the mountains (we should be able to see the foothills of the Himalayas from here), and the gentle slope that facilitated sewer and stormwater drainage.

The dimensions of the city, and even its layout, were designed with the human body in mind. The city organization includes a head (the government buildings), a heart (the city center), limbs (the industrial sector in the east, downwind from the rest of the city, and the institutional district in the west), and lungs (a central river and park). The city scale is also human(e), divided up into 800m x 1200m (250 acre) sectors, crossable on foot in 10 minutes. The districts are arranged in a Baroque style (requiring many landmarks, per Kevin Lynch's Image of the City). Each neighborhood is designed to be self-contained, each with its own school, neighborhood shopping district, and open space. City development as a whole was anticipated to occur in successively further downhill sectors as need arose, bounded east and west by two more rivers.

The desired pattern of development was held to for several decades, even handling the creation of another state, Haryana, and the assignment of its capital to Chandigarh. Chandigarh now hosts three capitals: Its own (its a Union State), Punjab's, and Haryana's. Currently there is pressure to transform industrial land to commercial, to transform mixed use residential-over-retail to multi-story commercial, and to increase residential densities, but the planners have managed to explain and defend the wisdom of Le Corbusier's design. The task of defending Chandigarh's original vision is made easier in part by the fact that the city's Chief Planner and Chief Architect are one and the same person, and also by the fact that she was trained by an architect who worked under Le Corbusier on the Chandigarh project, Mr. Roshan Malhotra. Mr. Malhotra is accompanying us on the Chandigarh portion of our trip.

Some of the details of the city design and development include:

• Le Corbusier had both zoning controls and architectural controls for the city,


• There is a seven-level hierarchy of streets,


• Housing for the poor is integrated into the design (how?),


• To encode the essential philosophies of his design, he created a 15 point edict that included rules such as "no development uphill from the lake",


• A Metro system may be coming soon, and once it is in place, some of the smaller neighborhood streets can be closed to auto traffic,


• Grade separation at intersections is coming soon too,


• The rail station was placed near the industrial district, but outside the plan area,


• There are now 117 sectors,


• Buildings in sectors face inwards toward the centers of their neighborhoods,


• Roads inside sectors meander, in order to keep auto speeds low,


• Trades used to be well distributed across sectors, but some sectors have gained reputations for being of high quality for certain goods (leading to a bit more traffic as people travel out-of-sector for the highest quality goods),


• Accommodations for storage and sales locations have been made for merchants that cannot afford a storefront,


• The tallest building is the Capital building at 10 stories, and most housing is 2-3 stories (but there is pressure to raise that level),


• Most buildings are exposed brick, lending an architectural identity to the city.

The meeting started to wrap up when staff reminded our host that she had a meeting with the High Court to go to. This is the second meeting that ended with the highest official's next stop being the courts.

The Rome of Asia

Dehli and its ruins reminded me and our resident architectural historian, Elaine Costello, of Classic Rome and post-Enlightenment European architecture. Both Rome and Delhi have so many ruins that many cannot be restored, and are now being used by the locals for modern purposes. Delhi, Rome, and Florence have all worked hard to make domes with circular holes at the very top of the dome. Both India and Europe have dealt with successive invasions and outside influences. Both Delhi and Pisa have towers that appear to lean. Both Delhi and Washington, D.C. have national malls running between government buildings and national monuments. Both Delhi and Paris have grand arches. There were so many similarities that I started to wonder whether these two cultures were really that much different. I then thought about languages, and recognized that both countries have an ancient language from which their modern languages spring, Latin and Sanskrit, and then remembered that those two languages both belong to the Indo-European group of languages. Finally, I thought about how both Europe and India were invaded then settled by Aryans, and so I conclude that the two cultures really are closer than I had first thought.

(Alex's voice) Like Rome - but on steroids and diet pills - Delhi is an alternating chaotic and inspirational city. It's ancient ruins are interspersed in a vibrant, congested metropolis. For vacationers, there is no need to take a trip to Disneyland, the city itself is an incredible blend of theme park, living history museum and scary sci-fi future. For its 16 million residents, Delhi is home, and a shot at increased access to contemporary tastes and modernity - and the capitol of a proud, cuturally rich, incredibly diverse nation of nations.

New Delhi

We saw New Delhi on a Sunday. Traffic was a lot lighter than expected (but plenty noisy), and so was the smog. At the India Gate there were modest crowds of sightseers, and a ton of cricket games going on on the Mall. The Bungalow district, where the top level civil servants of India have lived since 1930, was peaceful. The bungalow boundary walls were topped with barbed wire, and had guards at the gates and in the watchtowers at the corners. All the sidewalks are under repair, being relaid with paving stones. Those two features together could explain why there were few pedestrians. There are almost no structures visible above the trees. The odd angles that the roads met at traffic circles, and the circles themselves, made it tough to keep track of what direction we were headed, despite monuments at the far end of major vistas.

Ranu Delhi

On the flight in to Delhi, I read Ranu Aggarwal's 1991 Masters Project on Urban Redevelopment in New Delhi. Ranu works with Rob and me in the County of Santa Clara Planning Office. Her study examined the development of and in the British established area of New Delhi, called Lutyens' New Delhi, which lies at the heart of the contemporary metropolitan city. According to Ranu’s study, Lutyens' New Delhi was not just a layout of road network and various land uses to serve administrative, institutional, commercial, residential and recreational functions when established in the early 1900s. It was a political statement. The city design employed principles of Baroque design, and physical elements of the Garden City and City Beautiful to create a socially insular enclave, set in the historic and living landscape of the Delhi area, to symbolize the power and structure of the British colonial rule at that time.

The 1991 urban design study examines existing conditions in three areas of Lutyens' New Delhi – Connaught Circus, Central Vista, and Janpath, as well as the districts' urban design and the features that connect the districts. She follows up on the existing conditions analysis by putting together some recommendations based on the analysis. Since I expect to see most of the same conditions during our days in New Delhi, I thought I would write down my expectations first, based on her work, then compare it to what I see during the day.

The first district described in the report is Connaught Circus, a commercial node consisting of two concentric rings of buildings around a central park, separated and accessed by three concentric roads. Ranu describes Connaught Circus as having a well thought out sense of place, with the whole circle defined by a consistent look and architecture of the buildings around the large circular open space (we learned later that lot development on Connaught Circus was subject to precisely defined design guidelines for height and facades). According to her study, the busy inner circle, having been widened over the years, limits pedestrians' ability to use the central park. There is so much traffic that people cannot cross to the center to enjoy the park.
My expectations for Connaught Circus are for a wide road chokes with traffic, with the former architectural consistency to have been disrupted by new development. Our Hotel, the LaLit, is supposed to be on Connaught Circus. I thought that meant I would be able to see the central park from the hotel room, but all I see from here is smog almost as thick as Nanjing's. The Circus is probably big enough for us to be in the Circus at the LaLit and still be a mile away from the central park.

Janpath, which means the ‘People’s Way’ in Hindi is a major arterial roadroad linking Connaught Circus and Central Vista. Ranu describes this road as providing a great transition from the busy commercial nature of Connaught Circus to the peaceful and contemplative Central Vista. The Janpath itself is divided into three parts: a commercial area, an office area, and a recreational area.

The part of Janpath nearest the Circus is supposed to have over the years developed a bazaar-like character, with lots of small shops and even more shoppers. The study describes problems in the area as encroachment of pedestrian sidewalks by shops and parked cars, lack of places for pedestrians to sit and relax, and lack of parking.

The next section of Janpath are offices and businesses. Two historic buildings, the Eastern and Western Court, define this section of the Janpath. The Courts and other buildings' architecture provide a foundation for creating a sense of place and a plaza-like setting for public gatherings and recreational use, but their potential is not fully realized. Boundary walls, a characteristic feature in the city for defining properties, are somewhat obstructive of the architecture and frontage of public buildings, particularly of the Eastern and Western Court. Also, the architecture and orientation of more recent developments in the area fail to contribute to the districts’s potential to develop a sense of place.

The third part of Janpath is residential followed by Institutional/civic and recreational as the street crosses through Central Vista. In this section, pedestrian-friendly streetscape features such as paved paths and park benches are lacking, which causes pedestrians to use other features of the stretch of road in ways that make it look haphazard instead of cohesive. Trees lining the street and large open space frontage and yards for residences (bungalows) create a open and leafy feel unique to Lutyen’s New Delhi in the contemporary metro. However, very low density housing in close proximity to employment centers presents planning challenges that the study suggests could be addressed through densification sensitive to the open and green character of the city. We later heard that any proposals for densification of the area are met with strong protest, as a threat to the district's identity.

I saw some signs for Janpath on our taxi ride from the airport to the hotel last night, but could only notice the boundary walls. It was too dark and too late to have experienced any other aspects of the Janpath. Even traffic was not that bad.

The last district described in the report is Central Vista. Central Vista is a large open space strip running east-west through the breadth of New Delhi. A broad avenue,called ‘Raj Path’, running perpendicular to Janpath, bisects the open space in two. The open space is anchored by the President’s House Complex and the National Sports Stadium at either end. It connects major government buildings and monuments, much like the Washington DC mall or even a bit like the Champs Elysees. The Central Vista is where military parades take place on the Republic Day parade which takes place on 26th January, the day the Indian Constitution was adopted in 1951. The district is characterized by large open spaces and monumental architecture at the major traffic nodes. The report says this area is underutilized, and activity along it is not well distributed. The report shows concern that newer, taller skyscrapers near the area could disrupt the open feel of the Central Vista. According to the report the city design initially envisioned the Central Vista extending all the way to the Yamuna River, a plan that was later abandoned due to cost. Today the National Stadium, a landfill, and a railyard are all in the way. According to the study, even as it stands, the public open space potential of Central Vista is not fully realized due to inadequacy of landscape features to address functional recreational needs.

All together, New Dehli the road networks, potential for vistas, landscaping, and architecture based on Baroque design principles laid down a good foundation for a memorable city. The biggest challenges are to maintain the strengths of the original physical design and build upon them to address and respond to the needs of a burgeoning democracy, and not let careless development chip away at these districts' potential.

Singapore

I was out on the streets of the old town by 8 AM. None of the shops were open so early, and I had the streets to myself. The old town is small enough to cross in 20 minutes, and it only took me two crossings to figure out how to orient myself. I spent most of my time on and around Arab street, where I saw one sari store after another. They were advertising outfits for as little as $50. The storefronts were the same narrow and deep two-story shops that I saw in Little India. This district had more plazas and parks than Little India, and in the morning before people were out and about, it was peaceful.

By 11 I was ready to pick up Hing at the airport. I bought an all day Metro pass for $8 (plus a $10 deposit for the metro card!) and hopped on the train. Once again, I was surprised by the lack of crowds, even for a Saturday. On the was to the airport I finally saw residential districts with tile-roofed townhomes instead of 20-story apartments. The arport itself was recently ranked #1 in the world, and judging by how many services it hosts (free internet, XBox, showers), I am not surprised.

In the three hours we had in town before we had to get back to the airport, Hing and I had two culinary objectives - Chili Crab, and a Singapore Sling. We found Chili Crab in a food court behind a McDonalds, and were lucky to get the last live crab they had. I saw the crab live and pinching, and 20 minutes later it was the freshest crab I had ever eaten. The same food court had a shop that specialized in fruit drinks, including Rose juice!, and it was delicious. The chili could overwhelm the crab, and when the crab is that fresh, there is really no need to embellish it with chili.

The Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel is where the Singapore Sling was invented. The Singapore Sling is a mix of gin, grenadine, brandy, and pineapple. It doesn't taste like alcohol at all, and so goes down real easy. The bar itself was nice, but nothing too special. We paid $18 for our Slings. The Hotel as a whole was nice because it had a lot of patios, gazebos, and other little places to discover. I think part of its lure is its history.

Tour de El Camino Stage 5: Little India, Singapore

I finally found a big Little India, and had to come to Singapore to do it. Little India is a 50-block district of two-story shops and apartments. The storefronts are narrow and deep, with displays of wares lining the colonnade. The feel was a lot like the Oakland or SF Chinatowns, but with fewer people. The Singapore tourism industry is pressing this district's identity, and has lined the streets with banners, but it didn't feel like a tourist area, and the shopkeepers did not hawk or press me to come into their shops to look at their goods. Most of the stores were for clothes, jewelry, and phone cards. I found an electronics store and got the good advice to buy a SD card reader to transfer photos from my camera to my laptop, and later found a three-story air-conditioned department store and bought myself a patterned short-sleeve dress shirt of the style I see all the other Indian men in this district wearing (Chinese and European men wear solid colors, not patterns). I was dripping sweat after 30 minutes walking outside, even though it was not quite 90F outside. I suspect I will acclimate: nobody else looked as uncomfortable as I felt, not even other Europeans.

Singapore First Impressions

Viewed during the approach to the airport, I see no structure under four stories high. The airport itself is not very crowded. Everything is in English. There are just a few more Asians and few less Europeans than I would see in SFO. I feel very comfortable here. There is no line at immigration, baggage claim, or customs. The people at the info desk speak a native English. The road into town is lush, with lots of purple blooms lining the parkway. There is hardly any traffic. Not once on my way to the hotel do I see structures under four stories, until we get to the Arab district. Here and in a few other areas are small side streets with two-story residential over retail. The rest of the city is Towers on the Green, with dozens of towers over 20 stories. The architectural details are beautiful, and they use lots of many-colored stone for the walks and plazas. The city reminded me a bit of Macau, a brightly colored mix of Asian and European styles. I saw a Germany-style traffic-safety-for-kids park, a riverside Ferris wheel like in Vienna, colonnades that make me think of Prague or Rome, and a beachfront that reminds me of the Lido near Venice. The people look Asian, but dress like its LA.

Cultural Studies are Rewarded in Small Ways

I notice that the logo for Air India is a guy with a bow, and I know now what I would not have appreciated a month ago, which is the logo shows Rama. I can make these kinds of connections in Europe, and its nice to be able to do it a bit in a different, more foreign culture.

The Geeta

At one video store I asked for a video of the Mahabarata, and the shopkeeper recommended I try watching the three episodes comprising the Bhagavad Gita first. I brought the disk home and popped it in the dvd player. The Geeta starts quite promising if you're expecting an action movie, with two armies replite with silver and golden chariots swiftly approaching each other across a desert plain. The armies come to a stop facing each other across a no-man's land of at most 100 yards. That was the one and only action scene of the movie. From that point on, there is only talk. The leader of one army begins to have doubts about the appropriateness of going to war against his uncles and cousins leading the other army, and talks his charioteer's ears off trying to get around the moral puzzle. The charioteer would also rather talk than fight, apparently, and the viewer is confronted with two hours of chat about how it is or it is not ok to do unto your brother as he has done unto you. The movie ends just as the hero Arjun picks up his bow and is about to let the slaughter commence.

In spite of myself, I did learn a little about Indian cosmology during the two-hour debate. The main point of the charioteer's lecture was that you have to do your duty, and not worry so much about your doing your duty will affect others trying to do their duty. If you show up to the field as a warrior and leader out to right a wrong, then get on with the war and right some wrongs. Don't get all caught up with whether your opponents have been good to you in the past, or if you would feel bad afterwards having killed some people. If you are a warrior, fight. Duty is what should guide you, not emotions like happiness or sorrow, fear or pride, gain or loss. Do your duty in the pursuit of justice. Besides, souls are eternal, so you might kill the body, but that was going to die anyway. The soul will live on, so don't worry about killing others, as long as it is your duty carried out in pursuit of justice. Arjun was just a bit too sentimental, and it's a good thing his charioteer was there to talk some sense into him.

Its not a bad philosophy. It means you can do what you set out to do without having to worry too much about what others might think or how it will affect them. It allows the application of enlightened self interest. Its all in the name of justice. Its a bit different though than the pursuit of happiness outlined in our Declaration of Independence. I am not sure that leading a just life will guarantee you happiness, except in the most abstract sense.

Oh, and the charioteer was Krishna, so you know what he said was right. During the whole lecture, Krishna had this half smile half smirk on his face, as if to say "I know what you're thinking, and you should just not worry so much and get on with doing your duty."

Season Three, NorCal APA Planning Tour

We now have a banner for this third international tour by the planners of the Northern California Section of the APA. The second season was the Spring 2007 tour of China, and the first season was a Fall 2003 tour of Cuba.

Diwali

This week I attended a Diwali party thrown by the Indians at work. I got a great meal and saw three nice dance performances. Each dance was performed by a woman, and each was a different style.

The first looked like a typical folk dance, designed strictly to entertain. It was particularly great when the dancer would momentarily forget her shyness about dancing in front of her co-workers and let a smile cross her face.

The second dance looked like an older, classical dance, and was obviously telling a story. There were hand movements and gestures, facial expressions, and stompings of the feet that made me think the dancer was rejecting a long string of suitors. I didn't have anyone who could 'translate' the dance for me, beyond telling me that Ganesh was involved.

The last dance was a collection and melange of several popular Bollywood style dances, and I even recognized one the the songs, Chaiyya Chaiyya (Shadow Shadow), made famous in a movie where the cast sings it and dances to it on top of a moving train. I was glad to have recognized the song, and it surprised the Indian woman across from me that I was able to make the 'train' reference.

Tour de El Camino Stage 4: Sunnyvale

I finally found the cluster of Indian stores on El Camino. Its between Lawrence and Wolfe. I found seven stores within walking distance of each other, and I took part of that walk. I started at the music and video store, and asked for more children's videos of the Mahabaratsa. I found out that there was a 94 episode tv series that told the whole epic. The shopkeeper explained to me that the Mahabharat was not for kids, and the philosophy would even make an adult's head spin. He recommended I start with the 3 episodes that comprise the Bhagavad Gita. I left the store with that and a kid's video about Krishna's childhood career as a butter thief.

I walk a few doors down to a sari palace and asked specifically for a dark red or blue shirt size 44. They found one for me within seconds, and we all had a great laugh at what an easy customer I was. I felt comfortable enough with them that I was able to ask whether I had to wear an undershirt with the shirt I bought. They confirmed, 'yes'.

I then walked to the electronics store and bought an adapter for my laptop. Having bought an item, I then felt comfortable browsing, but didn't see anything else I was interested in. I then crossed the street and looked at more shirts, almost bought a beautiful purple one that turned out to be too small, and looked at more trinkets but could not find a nice incense holder.

Satisfied that I had finally found the Little Indias of note in the Bay Area, I set my sights on the Little India district of Singapore, and went home and booked a room in a hotel in the Little India distric of Singapore for the night I am spending there before arriving in Delhi.

Introduction to Planning in India

At the end of the final meeting of the group before the tour starts, we were graced with a presentation by Jignesh Mehta on the highlights of planning in India. Jignesh has been helping the group all along with advice on where to go and what to see, and he also helped us arrange several of the meetings we will hold with professionals in India.

The parts of the presentation that interested me most were the philosophy of Indian city patterns, the hierarchy of Indian cities, and the new transportation system. The philosophy of an Indian city shows up in the birds-eye city layout. A traditional Hindu city would be divided up into grids, with different sections for different trades or classes. An example of this type of city is Jaipur, which we will visit. It is the shape of a nine square grid, with geography forcing one of the squares to be shifted from the upper left corner to the lower right side of the city. Other cities are in the form of concentric rectangles, with the outer rings reserved for the progressively more numerous and less prestigious classes. Muslim cities have very dense and winding paths with lots of dead ends. The British build New Delhi in a pattern that looks a lot like Washington DC.

The hierarchy concept was presented through the use of the word 'tier'. The first-tier cities are the biggest metropoli, including Dehli, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. There are only a handful of them. Second tier cities have at least 1,000,000 in population. There are perhaps 35 or so second tier cities. Third tier cities have between 100,000 and 1,000,000 in population. The placing of a city into a tier is flexible, depending on the person making the judgement or the statistic (population, wealth, business) being highlighted through the tiering.

The four biggest cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata are also the ones linked through a new superhighway system called the Golden Quadrilateral. Each leg of the Golden Quadrilateral connects a number of the second and third tier cities along the way, including ones on the Delhi-Mumbai leg like Jaipur and Amehdabad (which is also a candidate for first-tier status), which we will visit on our trip. There is a second phase of highway development underway right now, which will make a north-south and east-west routes

Movie Review 2: Ramayana

Earlier this week my family watched the Ramayana DVD we picked up in Berkeley. The cartoon art and simple story made it really easy for my son to stay interested, and for me to understand the attractiveness and romanticism of the story. I think there must be a lot more to Rama's story than just the one adventure portrayed in the movie I have, but it is enough for me to understand a lot of cultural references, and even people's names.

Here's a quick summary of the plot in the movie: Rama is one of several sons of a kind king with three wives. Rama is in town one day with his brother, and they see another king who will marry his daughter Sita off to whomever can string the mighty bow. Naturally, Rama succeeds where several other suitors (including the 10-headed demon Ravana) fail. Rama and Sita marry, and live happily for a while as heir apparent. However, one of the old king's wives and mother of one of Rama's younger brothers cashes in some political chips with the king and gets Rama sent off to the jungle for a 14 year exile. The townspeople are disappointed, and even the younger brother doesn't like what his mom did and promises to serve only as regent until the 14 year exile is done. Sita and another brother, Lakshman, go into exile with him. While in exile, Ravana finds out Rama is in exile through his sister Surpanaka , who stumbles across the exiles in the forest and falls in love with Rama. Rama diverts her affections to Lakshman, who rejects Surpanaka more harshly. She runs to Ravana complaining about her poor treatment at the hands of Rama and Lakshman, and Ravana decides now is the time to get revenge for having lost the contest for Sita to Rama. Ravana kidnaps Sita. Rama and Lakshman travel to rescue her, and along the way pick up the monkey army as allies. The mightiest monkey warrior is Hanuman, who helps Rama find and get to Ravana's island hideout. The last 15 minutes of the movie is a long battle scene where Ravana sends one hero after another out to be defeated by Rama's allies. At the end, Rama and Ravana go at it, and Rama wins. Soon after he gets back from the adventure, his 14 years of exile is up, and he takes over the kingship.

Some cultural notes on the Rama story, not included in the movie: 1) Rama can't trust in Sita's chastity during her captivity, and he ends up sending her into exile. 2) The Diwali festival (happening this week) is held on the anniversary of the end of Rama's exile.

Tour de El Camino Stage 3: Ragas to Rock to Bach

Last weekend I returned to the section of University Ave. in Berkeley where there is a concentration of South Asian shops and restaurants. This time I brought my wife with me. This eased entrance to the Sari Palace. This place was fantastic. The downstairs area was dedicated to the finest and most formal saris, but upstairs was the section for practical clothes, including a decent sized section for men. The colors were bright and rich, and there was an entire wall dedicated to scarves of every shade - it looked a lot like the 64-crayon Crayola box.

While we were browsing (and this was the first time I felt really comfortable browsing), we ran into another couple who were trying on formal India-style suits for the husband. It turns out he is an orchestra conductor who travels overseas often. Even better, the wife spoke German and had lived in Germany for several years. Contrary to all understanding of gender stereotypes, the women stood to the side chatting while their husbands shopped for clothes, and as we would occasionally appear before them wearing our proposed purchases, they would cast approving or disapproving nods in our direction.

We left the Sari Palace for a market across the street. I approached the shopkeeper right away with a request for any videos of the Ramayana, in English for kids. Because I clearly knew what I wanted and looked ready to buy, he was very helpful and friendly. He set us up with a Ramayana video done in Manga style in partnership with a Japanese art company. With disk in hand, we then browsed in peace and good conscience the rest of the store, which was full of exotic spices and snacks. Back at the checkout counter, we shot the breeze for a while, and among other things he told us one use for saffron, as a flavoring mixed into steamed milk.

Our last stop that morning was at the record store next door. There we were helped by a young kid from Nepal, whose English was heavily accented but whose love and knowledge of music was in perfect tune. He took me to the Ragas section, and I found a CD where the music was played on a 12-string touch-style fretboard instead of a sitar or guitar. A fretboard is like an electronic guitar, except that you make the tones by tapping the strings against the fretboard instead of plucking or strumming the strings. Its shaped like a guitar, but functions more like a piano where your fingers are the hammers. The artist on the disk I bought is Teed Rockwell, but I first heard tapping (hammering) on old Van Halen albums, and recently seen Bach tapped on a doubleneck guitar by a Polish kid named Adam Fulara. Bob Culbertson has an acoustic guitar designed especially for tapping, and he might be playing it this weekend at the Half Moon Bay Art And Pumpkin Festival.